Thursday, July 19, 2012

Steamed Sweet Potato Rice with Apples and Chicken (地瓜炊饭)

I happened to see this sweet potato rice recipe from Violet Fenying's facebook page and immediately bookmarked it for trying cos I love sweet potatoes and I have been looking for a recipe similar to my pumpkin rice or cabbage rice, but involving sweet potatoes. Finally I found this dish and it didn't disappoint me in terms of taste!

Here is my adapted recipe (for 1 adult and 1 child)Ingredients2 tbsp butter1 small sweet potato (skin removed and cut into 1 cm rings)1 shallot or small onion, chopped finely3 deboned chicken drumsticks (with skin, washed, drained and chopped into small pieces)1/2 a red apple (peeled, cored, and chopped into pieces)1 cup thai rice (rinsed and drained of water), about 100g1.25 1 cup water1/4 tsp saltMethod1. Remove the skin of the sweet potato, and cut into rings 1 cm apart. For the bigger rings in the middle, cut each piece further into 2 or 4 pieces. Similarly for the apple, remove the skin and seed and set aside 1/2 an apple. Cut 1/2 the apple into 5 thin slices and for each slice, further cut into 2 pieces.2. Heat up a wok at medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp butter followed by chopped onion, chicken, sweet potato and apple. Stir-fry everything together until the chicken pieces are browned on the outside.3. Add in the rice, and mix evenly for a while. Add salt to taste. (I would consider adding another 0.5 to 1 tbsp light soya sauce).4. Finally transfer everything into a rice-cooker. Add sufficient water to cover the rice mixture. Press the COOK button and wait for the rice to be cooked. When the rice is cooked, open the rice-cooker, stir the rice a little and keep the rice inside the rice-cooker (using the KEEP WARM function) for another 10 min. Serve while hot. Verdict : I find my rice a bit wet when I added slightly more than 1.25 cups cup of water. So next time I would have to reduce the water slightly so that the rice is not that wet. Tastewise, it is very delicious especially with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and apples. It tasted just like home-cooked comfort food. I didn't manage to take a good foto today as I was famished and this rice dish was only ready at 1.30pm, way beyond my normal lunch time. So I quickly snapped a foto under non-optimal light conditions in the kitchen (it has been raining for the past 1 week and the sun has gone into hiding again), and I gobbled up everything within 5 minutes. But trust me, this is a very delicious and wholesome dish, which I am gonna cook again tomorrow for my 3 year old boy. I am sure he will love it!

Notes on 20 July 2012 : I made this dish again today and instead of 1.25 cup of water, I used 1 and 1/8th cup of water and the rice is still a little wet, like risotto. I believe that has got to do with the sweet potato and apple which release quite a fair bit of moisture into the rice. I would advise to use roughly 1 cup of water to 1 cup of rice if you like your rice to be not so mushy. But if you are cooking this for children, 1.125 cup of water to 1 cup of rice is fine as the rice texture then becomes very soft. This dish is also suitable as a porridge for babies, just increase the amount of water accordingly for making porridge, and omit the salt and light soya sauce as baby meals are not supposed to be seasoned.

Hi, Thank you for dropping by my blog and taking the time to comment. All feedback and comments are greatly appreciated. Please leave your name (real or nick) if you would like me to answer a recipe question, otherwise all. anonymous questions and comments will be strictly ignored. Anonymity is one of my pet peeves. And any spam or links to adverts will be deleted. Thank you and have a nice day!